Thursday News Threads

Zach, KEXP — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:22:14 +0000

The Flamings Lips are the kings of nontraditional marketing tactics and are no strangers to unique niche merchandise, but this new thing is pretty unexpected and awesome: a Silver Trembling Fetus Christmas tree ornament. The video below will provide you with all the details.

Coming up on February 23rd, Barsuk will be releasing True Devotion, the new album from Seattle-based singer/songwriter Rocky Votolato. Here’s a live version of “Sparklers,” which will appear on the new album:

Rocky Votolato - Sparklers (Live In East Palo Alto) (MP3)

Also in local music news, Seattle band and KEXP faves Fleet Foxes have been added to the official MySpace music playlist of the Vatican. Yeah, the Pope’s Vatican. Their song, “He Doesn’t Know Why,” is accompanied by a number of other fun choices like Muse’s “Uprising”, and 2Pac’s “Changes.” Nice, Bene’. (That’s as good a way to shorten ‘His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI’ as anything else, right?)

Vevo, the new video streaming website being touted as the next decade’s MTV by the record companies that founded it, finally launched last night with a host of new music videos from mainstream artists like 50 Cent, Mariah Carey and Lupe Fiasco. Google’s YouTube and three of the four major labels — Universal, Sony and EMI — collaborated on Vevo, which gives labels a premium on the per-views advertising fees, as opposed to the $3-$8 per 1,000 views the labels get from their preexisting YouTube deals.

Various Artists - Stroke: Songs For Chris Knox

Reclusive/genius Neutral Milk Hotel sonngwriter, Jeff Mangum, has contributed a cover to a new compilation that serves as a tribute album to New Zealand indie folk innovator Chris Knox called “Stroke.” More tracks from people like Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Yo La Tengo, the Mountain Goats, Stephin Merritt, Bill Callahan, A.C. Newman, and Jay Reatard are included, as well.

Rolling Stone listed their Top 100 albums of the decade in their newest issue. They gave Radiohead’s Kid A top honors and followed it up with The Strokes and Wilco. Also, somebody there loves them some Kings of Leon… three of their albums made the list. I’m stoked to see more of these lists come out.

She & Him, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward respectively, are set to release Volume Two in March of next year on Merge.

Justin Vernon, the guy from Bon Iver, teamed up with his old high school jazz band to record a charity album to help raise money for them to travel and take part in the Essentially Ellington competition. But, whatevs. I hear it’s pretty good.

Outkast members Andre 3000 and Big Boi are set to release new solo albums in 2010. According to Big Boi, “when the solo albums come out, depending on how the fans support them, then we’re gonna give them the Outkast album.” Hey! Ya!

Jason Lytle, formerly of Grandaddy.

Ex-Grandaddy frontman, Jason Lytle, has put out a free downloadable Christmas album. I haven’t listened to it yet, but it’s apparently “35 minutes of improvisational piano music.” Hmm.

We warned you before that Weird Al Yankovic was set to join the Pixies on stage this week for a benefit at LA’s Echoplex, and it was no joke… no, really. The Grammy-winning satirist didn’t change a lyric to “I Bleed” as he took over vocals the other night, but he did ham it up to make it really entertaining. Here’s a clip:

Zach, KEXP — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:36:42 +0000

On Halloween, Ted Leo and some of his buddies got on a Philadelphia stage as “TV Casualty.” Then, they proceeded to play two entire sets of music written and performed by the band Misfits! It’s a pretty faithful effort, too, and very enjoyable. And it’s all on YouTube. Check out Part 1 below, then watch parts 2, 4, 5, and 6. Don’t ask about 3.

As mentioned Monday on this here KEXP blog, The Pixies will be playing on Conan tomorrow. What wasn’t known is that they’ll be breaking out the classic “Here Comes Your Man,” which is kind of exciting to this guy, at the very least.

Rachel Yamagata will be hitting the road in support of The Swell Season, who recently performed an incredible set of music for a select group of KEXP donors. Ms. Yamagata doesn’t have the 11/22 Seattle date listed, though.

Chart news: Michael Jackson is back at #1 this week with This Is It. A little more surprising is that, last week, The Flaming Lips cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 album charts for the first time with their new record, Embryonic. They were the top new entry at #8 if you don’t count the new Twilight movie soundtrack, which got #2.

So, I don’t want to keep writing about Weezer, but they keep doing bizarre newsworthy things. This time, they’ve collaborated with singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (?), rapper Chamillionaire (??), and Kenny G (???). See the results here.

And speaking of weird collaborations while taking any opportunity to talk about the Pixies again: apparently Weird Al Yankovic will join the Pixies on stage to sing “I Bleed” for a benefit show on December 8 at LA’s Echoplex. Actually, for two nights, December 8 & 9, Black Francis will host a benefit for Winston’s Village, where he’ll perform solo, with members of the Pixies, Flea, and his wife Violet Clark (with whom he performs as Grand Duchy). A bunch of other artists, including Love and Rockets, will also take the stage.

Apparently the entire Beatles catalog will be released on a special apple-shaped 16gb USB drive later this year--12/8 to be exact--which could have nothing to do with the holiday season. Along with the 14 studio albums, the drive will feature 13 “mini-documentaries.”

Kings of Leon could use a whole load of somebodys to buy from their new clothing line. If you’re interested in being such, check it out at the store’s website/blog.

Just when you thought this post couldn’t get any more commercial, check out the following, well, commercial, featuring Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, Blink-182’s Travis Barker, and Kanye West’s Taylor Swift. Ugh:

The KEXP Blog » “Weird Al” Yankovic